Lil Uzi

Eternal Atake (Deluxe)-LUV vs. The World 2

Atlantic Records · March 13, 2020

When Lil Uzi tweeted “WE GONNA TREAT 2020 LIKE 2016” three months ago, it’s fair to say nobody expected a 32-song double album with nearly every snippet and leak grail his fanbase has begged for in the comment section of every Instagram fit pic he’s posted in the past two years. This tweet was followed by a slew of manic and absurd ramblings, ranging from frequent and confusing character attacks on cheese pizzas enthusiasts, such as “Y’all don’t have no swag at all like really you still eat cheese on your pizza,” to changing his name at the drop of a hat from “Renji” to “Baby Pluto” and so on. Despite the insane heap of messages this first tweet was lumped in with, Uzi did not lie when he promised to invoke the energy of 2016 this year.

The release of two projects back to back, but also the inclusion of unreleased tracks from 2016 like “Come This Way” leads the album to retread a somewhat familiar sound. But it serves as a testament to Uzi’s tenacity for hit-making that none of these less new tracks sound stale or old despite their age. In the deluxe half of Eternal Atake, the vast majority of songs were recorded and shelved years ago. “Bean (Kobe)” and “Myron,” two of such older songs, are just as timeless and catchy as the rest of the newer material.

The album is filled with so many quotables and catchy hooks that putting it down without getting the urge to immediately listen to it again is near impossible. Be it the instantly memorable “I might move like a cobra, but I’m far from a snake” line on “I Can Show You” or “Treating these Diors like it’s just old Vans, yeah, yeah” on “Venetia,” Uzi packs both sides with hits.

The deluxe side is full of fantastic features from Young Thug, Chief Keef, Future, and more. Even NAV, a rapper with an impressive and uncanny ability to ruin any song he hops on, gives one of the best verses of his career. The Atake side, on the other hand, only has one feature from Syd who delivers an incredible performance. Uzi holds his own on all his solo songs and manages to keep the listeners active even without the attention grabbing features of the deluxe. Not all artists can weave so expertly from such a feature-heavy disk to a near solo effort, but Uzi does it naturally.

Almost counterintuitively, the older deluxe tracks sound fresher, more fun, and more exciting than much of Eternal Atake proper. Many of the Atake songs seem flaccidly referential to previous career highs without offering anything new in return. This is where treating 2020 like 2016 goes wrong. Songs like “Secure The Bag” which copies its hook from a line in his 2016 song “Ronda,” and shares a name with his 2016 song “Secure The Bag” with Gucci Mane, just fall flat and bring nothing interesting to the table. “P2,” on the other hand, is an example of this same referencing working well. A follow-up to his 2017 smash hit “XO Tour Llif3,” “P2” leans into its copying of older source material and invokes just the right amount of nostalgia without overstepping its bounds. These constant allusions to his old work do not limit this project’s ability to stand on its own, but do drag it down repeatedly throughout the album.